Here, you are urged and encouraged to run your mouths about something important.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Obama's Georgia Eligibility case Transcends Birtherism

Look, I've stayed away from the Birther cases as much as anyone but this story transcends that issue by a country mile. It's not about the location of Obama's birth. It's about his being above the law. First, to re-cap. In a case brought by five plaintiffs, it was argued that Barack Obama should be off the primary ballot in Georgia. Last month, Judge Michael M. Malihi denied a request by Obama's attorney to quash the subpoena that required the president to appear before the court for the January 26th hearing.

Obama responded by thumbing his nose at said judge and did not appear. In a sane world, that translates to a default judgment for the plaintiffs. That did not happen. Instead, in what could have been seen at the time as a show of respect for the office of the President, Malihi ruled that he would reserve judgment and allow both sides to present summaries as to why the court should rule in their favor.

Obama's attorney, Michael Jablonski, then went to the Secretary of State for Georgia, Brian Kemp, who had the authority to review Malihi's decision. Kemp, in essence, told Jablonski that his client (Obama) needs to respect the decision, saying:

“If you and your client choose to suspend your participation in the …proceedings, please understand that you do so at your own peril.”

Malihi has now ruled in favor of Obama. As I said, this story transcends "birtherism." A defendant has defied a judge's ruling that said defendant appear before the court and said Judge responded by ruling in the defendant's favor.

An administrative law judge in Georgia today ruled that Barack Obama’s name can be on the state’s 2012 presidential election ballot because he was born in Hawaii, is “native born” and thus also is “natural born” as required by the Constitution.

He cited a little-known determination by an Indiana judge.

“The Indiana court determined that a person qualifies as a natural born citizen if he was born in the United States because he became a United States citizen at birth,” wrote Michael Malihi, an administrative law judge in Atlanta.

Those who dismiss this Georgia case risk doing what Democrats did in defense of Bill Clinton during the Impeachment hearings. "It was just sex," they said. No, it was about perjury.

It's important here not to get bogged down in the "tin-foil hat" aspect often attributed to Birthers.

This can't get any simpler. It's not about the validity of Obama's Birth Certificate; it is about a defendant kissing off a judge by not showing up when ordered and then having said judge rule in the defendant's favor.